Ghana Standards Authority
The Ghana Standards Authority has urged Ghanaians to be very careful when buying products from the market.
The institution believes that consumers have inadequate knowledge of the products they patronize and hence accept “just anything”.
Speaking on the Behind the Headlines (BTHL) show, the Head of Public Relations of the Ghana Standards Authority, Dr. Kofi Amponsah Bediako called on all Ghanaians to pay close attention to what they buy from the market. He stated that many consumers are not quality-conscious and that was a major problem.
“Many of the consumers on the continent are ignorant about what to expect. They are ready to accept anything, and that is a major problem. If everybody will be quality conscious and will stand firm, it will help shoddy products to be weeded out of the market. You don’t even need a standards body or any other regulatory body to push it. It is very important for every consumer to pay attention to what is consumed. If whatever is consumed is bad or substandard, it will go to destroy the body. So I am appealing to everybody to be very careful with what we buy. So that we can all help protect ourselves and every citizen in this country.”
Dr. Kofi Amponsah Bediako further drew a line between the Ghana Standards Authority and Food and Drugs Authority. He explained that the Food and Drugs Authority is a regulatory body that deals with food, drugs, cosmetics etc. while the Ghana Standards Authority is responsible for developing and promoting policies and standards.
“Well, let me clarify something. Food and Drugs Authority is a regulatory body. They deal with regulations as far as food, drugs, and cosmetics are concerned. Ghana Standards Authority is not a regulatory body on any product. Rather, it is a standards body. It develops and promotes standards and what it does is after these standards have been promoted, regulatory bodies like FDA will come on board to help implement them.”
Dr. Kofi Amponsah Bediako then outlined some of the way the Ghana Standard Authority interacts with the general public with the sole intent of educating and sensitizing them on products on the market.
“So one channel that is often used is both the traditional and social media. Social media because we won’t reach out to certain people, and traditional media because you still have some people you can reach out to when you use traditional media. But beyond this, you need face-to-face contact. And that is what we do. We meet market women. We meet groups of people. We meet organizations operating . . . because you need to meet with such people so that you can tell them what your plans are and invite them to support you for successful development in the sector or region.”